


Today is a good day and here's why

by weethreequarter



Series: Marvel Bingo 2019 [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Developing Relationship, Family Fluff, Father-Son Relationship, High School, M/M, Marvel Bingo 2019, Minor Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Oblivious Bucky Barnes, One Night Stands, Paparazzi, Past Bucky Barnes/Natasha Romanov, Past Teen Pregnancy, Single Parents, Tattooed Bucky Barnes, overdramatic teenagers, teenage angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-05
Packaged: 2020-11-24 17:14:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20911208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/weethreequarter/pseuds/weethreequarter
Summary: Harley thought this was going to be a good day. Until MJ shows him the news.In which Bucky is fluent in teenager, but not in celebrity, and it comes back to bite him on the ass.Marvel Bingo 2019 - Tony Stark





	Today is a good day and here's why

**Author's Note:**

> I recently was struck with the idea of Harley as Bucky's son and instantly fell in love.

Bucky doesn’t even need to look up to know that Harley’s in a bad mood when he gets home from school. He’s raised his son since the day he was born. He knows from the slam of the front door and the stomp of Harley's footsteps that he’s pissed off.

“Good day?” Bucky calls, because he’s a little shit like that, and just because he had to grow up fast to raise his own child when he was still a child himself, doesn’t mean that he isn’t still a childish son of a bitch at times. 

Harley appears in the doorway and glowers at Bucky.

“I hate you,” he declares, before stomping off into his room. 

The door echoes with a slam.

Bucky’s fluent in teenager; hell, he was still a teenager himself when he became a father. He knows that this isn’t a true declaration of hatred. It’s not one of anger with no conviction behind it. Nor is it the sigh of irritation. It’s one of aggravation, of embarrassment, that says Bucky has done something deathly embarrassing, and Harley would like him to believe that he’ll never forgive him, but Bucky knows in a week or so, things will be back to normal.

He’s not worried. 

Not until Natasha calls.

“Natalia,” he says when he answers the call.

“James,” she smirks out of the screen at him. “Well, well, well, you have been busy, haven’t you?”

“What are you talking about?” Bucky frowns, and that’s when the first seeds of doubt are sown.

“MJ was positively bouncing when she arrived home from school,” Natasha informs him. That’s a disturbing image. “Let me guess, Harley’s not talking to you?”

“How did you know?”

Natasha laughs.

“Oh, James.”

“Seriously, what did I do?” he presses.

Delight spreads across Natasha’s face, which can only mean bad news for him. Natasha is evil; a fact Bucky knows only too well, because he’s evil too, and together they made the miniature evil in Harley. Who’s started blasting death metal in his room.

“I’m sure you’ll find out soon,” she smirks. “Now, go make sure our son hasn’t smothered himself or something.”

“Careful, Natalia,” Bucky warns. “People might start to think you care.”

“I gave up a shot at the Joffrey Ballet,” Natasha snaps, “Just to give birth to him. If that doesn’t say I care, I don’t know what does.”

She hangs up without another word, and Bucky feels temporarily chastised. He gave up a lot to raise Harley, but he knows she gave up her dreams to bring Harley into the world. 

With a sigh, Bucky levers himself out of his chair and heads for Harley’s room. He raps his knuckles against the door before letting himself in.

Harley’s sitting on his bed, arms folded, and glowering at Bucky like he kicked his favourite puppy.

“What? What did I do?” Bucky asks, spreading his arms. 

“I know what you did,” Harley glares.

“Well, that makes one of us. Care to share with the rest of the class?”

“You slept with Tony Stark!” Harley cries.

Bucky blinks at him.

“I did what now?”

X

It is a good day, Harley decides. 

He’s got a new pair of sneakers that look totally cool, he’s wearing his favourite shirt, the one that makes his eyes pop - his parents were both dancers as teenagers, okay, he _knows_ about these things whether he wants to or not - and his hair just _works_ when he’s getting ready. 

He’s early for the bus, and it’s on time, so he doesn’t have to run straight to homeroom. He actually has time to hang out with his friends before class, which is awesome. Yeah, there’s a couple of kids staring at him as he climbs the front steps, but Harley just glares at them and carries on his way to find his friends.

Harley and his friends are in that tipping point between popularity and total obscurity. They’re cool enough that the popular kids talk to them, if they have to, and generally don’t make their lives a misery. But they’re also total dorks. It’s a fine balance. 

“Hey,” Harley calls, flopping into the empty seat between Ned and Kamala.

Peter and Ned look at him with wide eyes, while MJ snickers into her fist. She’s the one Harley looks at suspiciously. Then he notices Kamala has her lips pressed together like she’s trying to stop herself from laughing, and he feels a sick swoop of worry.

“What’s going on?” he asks.

“Uhh…” Peter and Ned flounder, and Harley is momentarily distracted from his concern because Peter looks cute when he’s floundering. Then MJ kicks him under the table, and Harley narrows his eyes again.

“What?” he asks. 

That’s when he notices the stares from around the cafeteria, some accompanied by sniggers, and Harley feels a deep foreboding.

MJ is the one to end his misery; or, perhaps more accurately, redirect his misery. Because she hands him her phone and that’s when he sees it.

Harley stares.

And he stares.

And he stares some more.

Horror fills him, because now it all makes sense; the staring, the laughing. And Harley regrets even calling it a good day, because this is _not_ a good day. No, this is a terrible day. This is the worst day imaginable.

Because on MJ’s phone is an article from TMZ, and front and centre is a picture.

A picture of Tony Stark.

A picture of Tony Stark making out with Harley’s dad.

“I’m gonna kill him,” Harley breathes.

X

“You slept with Tony Stark,” Harley repeats. 

Bucky blinks at him. He knows _of_ Tony Stark, of course he does, but he’s not familiar with him, not in the way Harley is. Harley idolises Tony Stark, Bucky knows that, but honestly? Bucky probably couldn’t pick Tony Stark out of a lineup. 

“Don’t try to deny it,” Harley warns. “I saw pictures.”

Bucky still doesn’t know what he’s talking about, so he pulls out his phone and does a quick google image search for Tony Stark.

And, ohhh, now it makes sense.

Because yeah, Bucky recognises him, but not as Tony Stark. He recognises him as the hot guy Bucky met when he was out clubbing last weekend, the same guy he ended up making out with in the alley outside the club. 

Only it was Tony Stark.

And apparently there are pictures.

Paparazzi pictures no doubt, because Tony Stark is all kinds of famous.

Pictures that Harley has seen. And Natasha. And most of the world.

Shit.

“I didn’t _actually_ sleep with him,” Bucky tries.

Harley glowers mutinously at him.

“Get. Out.”

Bucky decides to cut his losses, and leaves Harley to sulk. He’s an epic sulker. Bucky blames Natasha. Natasha blames Bucky. 

Bucky knows it’s not the hooking up with a man part that bothers Harley. Harley knows Bucky is bisexual. And he knows that parents have sex. Hell, Harley’s a smart kid, he’s at a STEM school, he knows how to count. He can subtract fifteen from thirty two. He knows how old Bucky was when he had him. 

No. No, the problem here is the fact that Bucky’s hooked up with someone famous. Someone famous who sorta, kinda happens to be Harley’s hero.

Oops?

Bucky returns to the kitchen and leans against the counter. His phone chirrups in his pocket; pulling it free he finds a message from Steve.

** _YOU SLEPT WITH TONY STARK???_ **

Jesus Christ, it’s reached Afghanistan?! 

_No, I did not sleep with Tony Stark!_ Bucky replies. _There was a lot of making out, and some heavy petting, and I definitely touched his dick through his pants, but I didn’t sleep with him._

Not because he didn’t want to, mind. In fact, Bucky would be _more_ than happy for at least a repeat performance, if not more, even if it was with Tony Stark. Because Tony was hot, and Bucky came home half hard after making out for fifteen minutes, and had to rub one out before he could get to sleep.

** _BUCKY!!!_ **

And then: **_So Harley’s not talking to you then?_**

Bucky throws his hands into the air and tosses his phone aside.

He’s not dealing with this shit.

So when his phone rings, he almost ignores it, because it’s probably Steve, using up precious minutes to yell at Bucky from an actual war-zone, because he’s that kind of idiot. But at the last minute, his hand snatches out and grabs the phone, answering it without looking at the screen.

“What?” he snaps.

“Hi.”

Bucky stops.

It’s Tony.

X

Once his dad leaves, Harley picks up his phone and facetimes Peter. 

Peter’s been his best friend since elementary school, when they were rivals. That rivalry developed into a friendship, through which Harley also became friends with Ned. Then they moved to middle school, and became friends with Kamala. Harley introduced them to MJ, because she was his stepsister, and then they all started Midtown together.

But over the years, Harley’s feelings for Peter changed without him noticing, until one day he looked at Peter and realises, _Fuck, I’m in love with him_. It’s kind of awkward, because Peter’s his best friend, and then he was dating MJ for a while, but mostly Harley just lives with it because he’s rather be Peter’s friend than tell him how he feels and be rejected and lose his friend too. 

Besides, this way, when Harley wants to curl up and burn with embarrassment, he can still call Peter and see his face and hear his voice and- _fuck_, he’s pathetic.

“Hey,” Peter says when he appears on screen.

Harley groans and flops dramatically onto his bed. 

“That good, huh?” Peter grimaces.

“_Everyone_ knows,” Harley sighs. “_Everyone_.”

Peter opens his mouth to argue, but Harley fixes him with a look, and Peter silently concedes. There’s no hiding it after all, not with his dad’s full sleeve tattoo and his custom prosthetic on full display. No one else has that tattoo, and no one else has that prosthetic. A fact everyone knows, thanks to his dad’s penchant for tank tops. 

“Hey look on the bright side?” Peter suggests. “Tony Stark could become your stepdad? Another one.”

“Holy shit,” Harley breathes, sitting up suddenly as realisation strikes him.

“Harley?”

“Rhodey,” Harley blurts out. “My stepdad knows Tony Stark!”

X

“Hi,” Bucky says. And then because he’s a dumbass, he blurts out, “I didn’t give you my number.”

On the other end of the line, Tony chuckles. It’s low and throaty and would go straight to Bucky’s groin if he wasn’t freaking out about the fact that Tony had called him. Him. Bucky Barnes. Whose number he did not have.

“Well, it turns out my best friend is married to your ex,” Tony explains. “Natasha is terrifying.”

“Yeah. She definitely is,” Bucky agrees.

“So, um, you’ve probably seen the news.”

“Actually no, but my son has. And Natasha. And my best friend in Afghanistan. So, I know.”

“Ah. And what was the reaction?”

“Well, my son’s not talking to me, because apparently I embarrassed him. Not that I care. I’m his dad, it’s my job to embarrass him. Natasha think it’s hilarious. And Steve is grossed out. But mostly they’re all in disbelief that I didn’t know who you were.”

“You did know who I was?” Tony echos, sounding amused. 

“No,” Bucky sighs. “I just knew you had a great ass, and were smoking hot.”

Tony chuckles again, and goddammit, he needs to stop doing that. Or do it at a time when Bucky can enjoy its effects. 

“So, uh, I called because I wanted to see what you wanted to do. You know, about the paparazzi.”

“Do?” Bucky frowns. “I was under the impression no one could really _do_ anything about the paparazzi?”

“Not really, but I can try and get them to back off of you, if you want?”

Bucky considers it. 

Yeah, Harley would probably appreciate not having Bucky’s face splashed across the tabloids. And it would mean Natasha would stop teasing him. Or, more accurately, she would have to find something _new_ to tease him about. And it would stop Steve from yelling at him for being an idiot. 

But…

“Is there another option?” Bucky asks.

X

Bucky knocks on Harley’s door again an hour later. The death metal has been replaced by Harley’s usual eclectic mix of music, and returned to a less eardrum destroying volume, and this time when Bucky opens the door, he’s met with Harley’s usual resting bitch face.

(It’s hereditary. Bucky’s very proud of his resting bitch face, and of the fact Harley’s inherited it)

“Dinner’s ready,” he tells him.

“Coming,” Harley nods.

“Oh, and best behaviour,” Bucky warns “We’ve got a guest.”

“Who?” Harley yells after him.

Bucky doesn’t answer, smiling to himself as he begins to serve up. He pauses when he hears Harley’s foot steps in the corridor, so he can memorise the moment Harley recognises the third person in the apartment, sitting at their thrift store dining table like he belongs there.

“Hi. You must be Harley,” Tony grins.

Harley makes a high-pitched noise in the back of his throat, and Bucky belatedly wishes he’d thought to record this moment because it’s _priceless_.

(Seriously. This is going in his speech if Harley ever gets married)

X

Harley’s mortified to discover Tony Stark is _still there_ the next morning, because he knows what that means. And that’s an image he really, really doesn’t want in his head.

But Tony makes up for it by offering to drop him off at school in his shiny silver sports-car. Everyone stares and Harley just grins as he runs up the steps to join Peter.

Maybe today’s a good day.

**Author's Note:**

> It's never explicitly stated, but Rhodey and Nat are married, and MJ is Rhodey's daughter.
> 
> I'm on Tumblr as [weethreequarter](https://weethreequarter.tumblr.com) so feel free to come and chat.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic] Today is a good day and here's why](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24311053) by [Cathalinareads (Cathalinaheart)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cathalinaheart/pseuds/Cathalinareads)


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